ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, November 15, 1996 TAG: 9611150076
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-14 EDITION: METRO
White teacher writes on black pupil's face
CHARLESTON, S.C. - A kindergarten teacher was suspended Thursday for writing ``Where are my glasses?'' with a marker on the face of a 5-year-old girl who had forgotten to wear them to school.
The district superintendent said the teacher, who is white, used ``extremely poor judgment.''
An attorney for the pupil, who is black, called Wednesday's act racial.
``She was branded,'' said Gary Ling, who said he plans to sue. ``To me, it fits right in with our latest church burnings and KKK incidents.''
The words could still be seen on Nina Campbell's face as she played Thursday, wearing her glasses, beneath the towering pines outside her family's home.
``I could not see her being a white teacher writing a [similar] message across a white child's face,'' said her mother, Teresa Campbell.
Campbell said doctors told her it could take several weeks for the ink to wear off. School officials said it was a water-based marker.
- Associated Press
NRA wins right to lobby at U.N.
UNITED NATIONS - The National Rifle Association, Washington's most active pro-gun lobby, won the right Thursday to lobby at the United Nations.
The U.S. group is campaigning to block what it fears may be a U.N. push for tighter regulation of the firearm trade worldwide.
The NRA was one of 86 applicants on a list approved Thursday by the U.N. Economic and Social Council for formal status as non-governmental organizations participating in U.N. activities.
It means NRA representatives will have access to U.N. headquarters and the right to submit papers and otherwise lobby participants at U.N. meetings.
- Associated Press
Bias charges cost landlord $1 million
MIAMI - The owner of a suburban Miami apartment complex agreed Thursday to pay a record $1 million to settle Justice Department allegations that he refused to rent to blacks and families with children.
Meanwhile, three owners of nine Boca Raton complexes agreed to pay a total of $345,000 to settle discrimination claims brought as a result of a federal investigation of housing discrimination nationwide.
Trained pairs of blacks and whites posing as prospective tenants are being sent to targeted complexes to ask about available rentals. Investigators then compare the results to see if the white couples are told there are apartments available when blacks are told there are none.
The $1 million settlement is the largest reached so far in the department's investigation, surpassing the $475,000 a Detroit apartment complex owner agreed to pay in September.
- Associated Press
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